1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an animal trap which will hold and encase an animal such as a rat and more particularly an animal trap which may be easily reset as an individual is disposing of the trapped animal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,929, entitled Animal Trap Device, issued to Paul Custard on June 26, 1979, teaches an invention which relates to animal traps and in particular single jaw traps which will prevent the caught animal from self injury to its leg. There have been many varieties of animal traps. The most common spring-type traps, upon being tripped, will clutch the animal's paw in a strong vice-like grip having the full force of the spring behind it. This type of trap often injures the animal's leg and it causes extreme pain to the trapped beast. Very frequently the trapped animal will gnaw off its own leg in an effort to free itself from the trap, thus resulting in a maimed animal and an inhumane trapping device.
The animal trap includes a tubular shell having an entrance opening therein and a trapping mechanism which is pivotally attached to the upper portion of the tubular shell and when in contact with the lower portion of the tubular shell is at an inwardly disposed acute angle from the entrance opening. The trapping mechanism pivots inwardly from the entrance opening in order to form a trap which engages the animal leg. The animal trap also includes a spring which is biased between the trapping mechanism and the tubular shell thereby pivoting the trapping mechanism outwardly toward the entrance opening of the tubular shell and an inwardly pivoting trigger which is attached to the tubular shell and which rotates inwardly from the entrance opening of the tubular shell. The animal trap further includes a trigger catch which is attached to the trigger and which is engagable with the trapping mechanism. The tubular shell may be secured to a wall so that the trapped animal can not drag the animal trap away.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,092, entitled Rat Capturing Device, issued to Tadanobu Nakai on Nov. 6, 1979, teaches an animal trap which includes an elongated hollow box-like housing having first and second side walls, a bottom wall and an end wall and an open end portion, a movable closure and a pivot shaft which extends between the first and second side walls and which supports the movable closure for pivotal movement about an upper portion of the movable closure so that the movable closure is movable between a closed position blocking the open end portion of the housing and an open position to permit the passage of a rat into the interior of the housing. The animal trap also includes a latch mechanism which is mounted in the housing for movement between an unlatching position which permits opening of the movable closure and a latching position which prevents movement of the movable closure from its closed position. The latch mechanism includes a latch shaft which extends across the interior of the housing between the first and second side walls inwardly of the movable closure and a latch actuator mechanism which supports the latch mechanism for movement from its unlatching position to its latched position in response to movement of the movable closure from its closed position to its open position followed by movement of the movable closure to its closed position. The latch actuator includes first and second aligned wall slots which are provided, respectively, in the first and second side walls with the respective ends of the latch shaft being mounted in the respective wall slots so that they move therealong with each of the wall slots each of which is a main vertically extending canted slot portion having a lower end termination and an upper end termination with the upper end termination being spaced inwardly of the housing from the movable closure a greater distance than the lower end termination of the main vertically extending slot portion. Each of the wall slots also includes upper and lower slot portion, respectively, which are connected to the upper and lower ends of the main vertically extending slot portions and which extend forwardly and rearwardly at a canted angle with respect to the main vertically extending slot portions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,835, entitled Small Animal Trap, issued to Robert F. Hunter on Dec. 25, 1979, teaches a small animal trap which has a cage with a bottom, a top, an open front end and sides joining the top, bottom and back and which includes a trap door hingedly affixed to the top of the cage at the front thereof. The trap door has a bottom edge. The small animal trap also includes a support member which extends beyond the back of the cage substantially coplanarly with the bottom thereof and a first pair of spaced parallel posts which extend substantially perpendicularly from the support member at a predetermined distance from the back of the cage and at a predetermined distance from each other. The small animal trap further includes a second pair of spaced parallel posts which extend substantially perpendicularly from the support member at a greater distance from the back of the cage than the predetermined distance and which have a cross bar which is affixed thereto and which extends therebetween substantially parallel to the support member and spaced thereabove. The small animal trap still further includes a lever which is pivotally mounted in the back of the cage at the center of the lever and which is balanced therein with the lever having a first end in the cage with a tray thereon for bait and a spaced opposite end which is movably positioned between the first pair of posts, a trip rod which has a length longer than the predetermined distance between the first pair of posts and which rests on the lever between the first pair of post and the cage, and a cord which has a first end affixed to the front bottom edge of the trap door and a spaced opposite second end affixed to the center of the trip rod. The cord is guided along the top of the cage and around the cross bar in a manner whereby the trap door is held open and when an animal depresses the first end of the lever by taking the bait, the second end of the lever moves upward and knock the trip rod free thereby slackening the cord so that the trap door is released and closed.
None of the above patents teaches a rat trap which not only traps and kills a rat, but which also enables an individual to reset the rat trap as he is disposing of the rat. Furthermore all of the above patents teach relatively complicated mechanical animal traps which are difficult to manufacture and assemble.